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Collaborative Recognition of Wellbeing Needs: A Novel Approach to Universal Psychosocial Screening on the Neonatal Unit

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Abstract

Universal screening for the psychological needs of families in neonatal care is internationally recommended, but is not routinely practiced in the United Kingdom (UK). The present quality improvement project explores the clinical and operational feasibility of a novel approach to universal screening on a neonatal intensive care unit in the UK. The approach to screening taken adopts collaborative, strengths-based and dialogical methods for recognising the psychological needs of families whose baby is in hospital. A novel screening tool, developed through consultation with families, is described. Over one month, 42 out of 80 eligible families engaged with the screening protocol either at admission to the unit, transition to the special care nursery within the unit, or discharge home, with completion rates higher at admission than discharge. This led to an eightfold increase in the number of families accessing targeted or specialist psychological intervention compared to the period prior to this pilot. This project demonstrates the need for adequate capacity in the workforce to carry out a screening programme and to respond to the needs identified.

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Data Availability

The data for this project are not stored within a repository but can be made available for the purpose of peer review if required.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

Notes

  1. In the UK, “Family Support Worker” is a widely adopted role in healthcare settings, undertaken by non-registered, non-clinical staff. They may be educated to degree level and often have a background in care work. A family support worker facilitates practical, financial, community and emotional support for families.

  2. Median values are reported for monthly number of referrals to clinical psychologist in the 12 months preceding the pilot, as well as for number of appointments offered during intervention for both the 12 months preceding the pilot and during the pilot period. This was due to significant skewness in these variables owing to a small number of outliers.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Dr Samantha Cole, Katy Parnell and Dr Andy Surtees for their comments on an early draft of this manuscript.

Funding

This project was carried out as part of the authors’ NHS salaried roles, with no additional sources of funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK

    Davy Evans, Daisy Eatwell, Shevonne Hodson-Walker, Sarah Pearce, Vicky Reynolds, Shona Smith & Leah Whitehouse

  2. North West Neonatal Operational Delivery Network, Manchester, UK

    Ruth Butterworth

  3. Health in Mind, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham, B4 6NH, UK

    Davy Evans

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  1. Davy Evans
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Contributions

The first author wrote the text of the manuscript. All authors were involved in the design and implementation of the project and in the editing of the manuscript, and agreed on the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Davy Evans.

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Conflicts of interest

Davy Evans, Daisy Eatwell, Shevonne Hodson-Walker, Sarah Pearce, Vicky Reynolds, Shona Smith, Leah Whitehouse and Ruth Butterworth declare that they have no conflicts of interest or competing interests.

Ethical Approval

This project was registered as a Quality Improvement project with the host trust Research and Development department, confirming no ethical approval is required.

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Verbal consent to participate in this project was given by parents.

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Evans, D., Eatwell, D., Hodson-Walker, S. et al. Collaborative Recognition of Wellbeing Needs: A Novel Approach to Universal Psychosocial Screening on the Neonatal Unit. J Clin Psychol Med Settings (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-024-10016-6

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